De Blasio can’t run on his police reform record: His failure to make major changes is glaringly clear this week

By Monifa Bandele

|New York Daily News|

May 16, 2019 | 4:43 PM

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the expansion of the body cam program for the NYPD with Commissioner James O'Neill (right) at the 79th Precinct January 30, 2018. (Todd Maisel/New York Daily News)

Instead of running for president, Mayor de Blasio should be focused on instituting more transparency and accountability for the police misconduct plaguing our city. Instead, he’s announced to run for the highest office in the land during the first week of the long-awaited disciplinary trial against Daniel Pantaleo, the NYPD officer primarily responsible for Eric Garner’s death in 2014.

This is a trial that should and could have moved forward four years ago if not for unnecessary stalling. While de Blasio claims he was following a directive from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to halt internal NYPD proceedings while the DOJ conducted its own investigation into Garner’s killing, the truth is de Blasio and the NYPD weren’t required to do so. The long delay in holding any of the multiple officers responsible for Garner’s killing and related misconduct accountable has brought insurmountable pain to the Garner family and outrage from the public.

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After years of de Blasio promising to implement swift and substantive police reform, he has failed to fully deliver. Our streets are still plagued with police violence and our policies still lack the necessary protocols to increase transparency and accountability.

In early 2018, de Blasio sat across from Gwen Carr, Garner’s mother, at a town hall meeting and proclaimed that her son “did not die in vain.” He reiterated his promise to implement training to end racially biased policing, a promise he was meant to fulfill three years earlier. When implicit bias training was eventually launched last year, it proved to be modest at best with no standards for tracking if the curriculum translates to the field.

In the meantime, there have been several other instances of police using excessive force against people of color, including the violent arrest of Jazmine Headley back in December, and the killings of Delrawn Small and Saheed Vassell.

The city has also ensured officers are protected under state Civil Rights Law 50-a, which shrouds evidence of police misconduct from the public even when claims of abuse are substantiated by city agencies like the CCRB. De Blasio has said he opposes the law, but it’s under his watch that the NYPD instituted the most restrictive interpretation in its history. In fact, the only reason we’re aware of the previous and disturbing misconduct claims against Pantaleo is because they were leaked. Without this leak the public would have remained in the dark, never knowing that he had a pattern of abuse or that the NYPD sent him back out on the street after each abuse with minimal punishment.

So while de Blasio claims he’s done more for police reform than any previous mayor, an honest reckoning with his legacy says otherwise. If the NYPD, de Blasio and other city officials want to create real change, there are concrete actions they must take.

Most immediately, the NYPD needs to hold Pantaleo accountable during his trial by immediately terminating his employment. The NYPD must also release the names of all officers involved in Garner’s death, and discipline them accordingly.

We also need Civil Rights Law 50-a to be repealed to ensure transparency and accountability, and stronger discipline measures for officers credibly found of abusing their authority. This includes passing Introduction.1309, which would require the NYPD to study the feasibility and effectiveness of penalties for certain ranges of officer misconduct. This would help promote consistent enforcement of disciplinary rules and enhance the public’s understanding of the process. It’s also crucial for the city to pass a rule currently under consideration that would mandate the NYPD publish its guidelines for determining the types of discipline to be imposed on officers for violations and require annual reporting on the number of officers subject to disciplinary action.

All of these steps are essential for addressing the pattern of aggressive and selective police enforcement which took the life of Eric Garner and disproportionately impact people of color. De Blasio and other city officials have the opportunity to save countless lives, so what are they waiting for?

Monifa Bandele is senior vice president at MomsRising and a board member of Communities United for Police Reform Action Fund.